Mid-Week M.E.L.A.: Camila Cabello and the Re-Rise of Old School Sexy

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Mid-Week M.E.L.A: Camila Cabello and the Re-Rise of Old School Sexy has been edited by Pratichi Sadavrati.

About a month ago, I was listening to some music when I noticed YouTube telling me to listen to ‘Havana‘ by Camila Cabello for the hundredth time. Now, I love music but I have the habit of listening to the same thing over and over again. But today, out of sheer frustration, I rolled my eyes and decided to give this song a go. I was cooking anyway so it wasn’t like I was actually going to hear it. I burnt my food that day.

Camila Cabello is so good, so rich and Hispanic in such an old-school way that it just gets you stuck on her songs. If Fevicol advertised with her songs, their sales would go up. It is practically impossible to do anything else while listening to her. Her rich, creamy, husky, sensual voice is what every man’s dreams are made of. Her cheeky falsettos and vibratos throw in just the right amount of attitude. You can imagine her strutting in high heels over to the bar to lean on her elbows and dismissively ask for a drink from under her sexy black fringe. Yes, I have a huge crush on her. Obviously.

A week ago, the video for ‘Havana’ hit the internet, and it is everything you expect it to be. A good old-school love story in black and white, showing self-worth while also finding love. Many might call it cheesy and predictable but I call it raw and right. You see, I want to see that – I want to see the girl get the guy. I want to see the sexy but lovelorn bar singer in the frilly red dress. The Hispanic guys in goatees and fedoras.

Agreed, it doesn’t have any plot twists or staggering social message or phenomenal acting or epileptic lights. But it has a very nineties element to it. It goes back to the time of the Hollywood dream. Jazz bars with dim lighting, passionate crowds and black and white tumultuous romances. While Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone were tap dancing to jazz music in the moonlight, this is what the Cubans and Mexicans were doing on the other side of town.

Ever since that day, I’ve been listening to Havana on repeat. This is the ex-Fifth Harmony singer’s debut single and is bound to have much personal meaning to her, having been brought up in Havana. As compared to her previous collaborations with Shawn Mendes and Machine Gun Kelly, this solo song was a massive hit and hopefully, we will find this to be her characteristic. The number has already topped charts and is closely followed by ‘Crying in the Club‘.

Her second song goes one step further and does what for me is a very musically exciting thing—completely changing halfway through. And no, I don’t mean just the tempo or the scales – it literally becomes a different song. While the first half of the song is a painful ballad about her breakup, the second half is a club number telling herself to get over it. And throughout the second half, we see flashes of her old self slowly recovering. The instruments change, the tone and lyrics change, and so do the tempo, lighting, her clothes and her mood. It is like musical inception in time.

This is an extremely bold move, especially for someone who is essentially only teasing the release of her debut album which hasn’t happened yet. Her ex-band, on the other hand, have not been doing as well since her departure in December 2016. Clearly, Karla Camila Cabello Estrabao made a very important contribution to the band and is now doing very well as a solo artist. She is raw, sexy, passionate and musically very stable and gifted.

It is evident that Camila Cabello is a very versatile writer and performer. She is not afraid to jump between genres and adventurous enough to merge two songs into one. That is a very commendable trait, especially for someone so early on in their career. I believe it is a very telling trait of a future superstar. She has her own distinctive voice, which is more along the lines of a Bond girl than a rebellious partier and she is bringing back Hollywood cool, ladies and gentlemen.